Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores Ltd Q2 FY26 – When Iron Turns to Gold and Manganese Starts Moonwalking!
1. At a Glance
Ladies and gentlemen, the ore lords are back — and they’re doing some serious heavy metal business. Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores Ltd (SMIORE), the 71-year-old mining monarch from the dusty ballads of Ballari, has managed to dig out not just iron and manganese, but also market cap magic worth ₹9,953 crore. At a current price of ₹205, the stock has been flexing its biceps with a 27.4% gain in the past three months — while the Nifty kept pretending to understand fiscal discipline.
For Q2 FY26 (Sep 2025), the company reported consolidated revenue of ₹1,232 crore and a PAT of ₹139 crore, marking an eye-watering 374% YoY sales growth and 331% jump in profits. Yes, you read that right — this miner has turned its shovels into money printers. Operating profit margins stayed sturdy at 22%, powered by rising iron ore prices and efficient operations post capacity expansion.
With an ROCE of 20.8%, ROE of 18.6%, and a clean balance sheet with zero promoter pledges, Sandur’s metal business is gleaming brighter than a new iPhone at a mining site. The company even dropped a 2:1 bonus issue in November 2025, proving it’s not shy of sharing the loot.
2. Introduction – The Empire Strikes Ore
If Karnataka had a Marvel Universe, Sandur Manganese would be Iron Man — literally. Born in 1954 (when mining meant muscle, not machines), this company has evolved from pickaxes to power plants. It now mines, smelts, and even makes renewable energy while staying fabulously profitable.
In FY25, Sandur decided to stop being a sleepy ore digger and started acting like a vertically integrated empire. With manganese ore reserves of 17 million tonnes and iron ore reserves of a massive 110 million tonnes, the company sits on enough metal to make Elon Musk jealous.
What makes this story even more cinematic? Sandur’s mines are in Ballari — the same region that once made mining scams front-page news. Yet, while others were getting raided, Sandur was getting rated — by CRISIL, that too “A+/Stable.”
Q2 FY26 just confirmed that Sandur isn’t digging holes in its balance sheet — it’s mining them full of cash. Sales surged 374%, profits ballooned 331%, and management quietly slipped in another bonus share while everyone was still counting ore trucks.
So yes, while most companies talk about “sustainable growth,” Sandur actually dug it out of the ground.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Let’s break down Sandur’s empire, brick by ore-laden brick.
Mining Segment (~64% of revenues): This is the OG business — extracting iron and manganese ores from the rich soils of Hosapete-Ballari. The company produces iron ore with 56–58% Fe content (that’s pretty good grade stuff). With two mining leases covering over 1,999 hectares, Sandur’s mineral real estate is like a villa on Mars — rare and valuable.
Current capacities:
Manganese Ore: 0.46 MTPA (planned increase to 0.58 MTPA)
Iron Ore: 3.81 MTPA (soon to be 4.50 MTPA)
When the Supreme Court allowed exports in 2022, Sandur immediately packed its trucks and rolled towards the ports — exports began in Q4 FY24 and are ramping up.
Ferroalloys (~11%): They don’t just dig ores; they cook them too. The company produces silico-manganese and ferro-manganese using a 32 MW power plant (with waste heat recovery) and a newly commissioned 42.9 MW hybrid renewable energy plant. Imagine — turning heat and sunlight into molten profit.
Coke & Energy (~26%): With four coke oven batteries (0.5 MTPA capacity) and two WHRB units generating 32 MW of energy, this segment powers the alloy division and cuts energy costs. Essentially, Sandur burns carbon to mint margins.
The business model is simple: dig the raw stuff, refine it, power it yourself, and sell it to industries that can’t live without it — steel, construction, and infrastructure.
Is it glamorous? No. Is it profitable? Oh, hell yes.
4. Financials Overview
Metric (₹ Cr)
Latest Qtr (Sep’25)
YoY Qtr (Sep’24)
Prev Qtr (Jun’25)
YoY %
QoQ %
Revenue
1,232
260
1,135
374%
8.5%
EBITDA
273
38
299
618%
-8.7%
PAT
139
32
167
334%
-16.7%
EPS (₹)
2.85
0.66
3.43
332%
-16.9%
Annualised EPS: ₹11.4 → P/E = 205 / 11.4 = 17.9x
That’s slightly above the industry P/E of 12, but hey — when you’ve got 374% YoY sales growth, nobody minds a premium.
Witty commentary: Sandur’s quarterly results read like a mining fairy tale — the company literally turned rocks into riches faster than crypto turned memes into billionaires.
5. Valuation Discussion – Fair Value Range
Let’s dig deeper than their excavators:
(a) P/E Method EPS (TTM): ₹12.3 Industry P/E: 12× Fair Value Range = ₹12.3 × (12–18) = ₹148 – ₹221
